Detachable hinge.



F. A. LEDWARD.

DETACHABLE HINGE. APPLICATION FILED DEC-9.1918.

1,301,461. Patented Apr. 22, 1919.

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abtoim FREDERICK A. LEDWABD, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

DETACHABLE HINGE.

' Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 22, 1919.

Application filed December 9, 1918. Serial No. 265,891.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK A. LED- WARD, a citizen of the United States, residiing at Detroit, in the county of Wayne and State of Michigan, have invented a new and useful Detachable Hinge, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to door hinges and more particularly to a type of hinges especially adapted for hanging automobile doors, and designed to permit a ready detaclnnent of such doors from the body of the vehicle.

The operation of mounting or hanging doors of this type is rendered difficult by the fact that it must be performed blind. That is to say, the pintles of the two hinges on which the door is to be hung are carried by the door and must be inserted through openings in the hinge leaves upon the door easing into recesses in said casing in order to engage said pintles with their sockets. Since the door must of course be held in close proximity to the casing, the workman cannot observe the relation between the hinge members and after he has inserted the pintle-carrying members into the recesses of the casing he must keep shifting the dooruntil he succeeds in bringing the two pintles into registration with their sockets.

It is the object of the present invention to provide the socket member of the hinge with means for immediately guiding the pintles into registration with their sockets, thus eliminating the labor and loss of time involved in mounting automobile doors by the hit or miss method employed in the present practice.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein,

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the portions of a door and its casing to which the coacting hinge members are secured, the door being represented as swung fully open, and the hinge members being shown fully engaged.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the two hinge members disengaged, the relative positions of the door and easing being indicated in dash lines.

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken on line 3 3 of Fig. 1.

In these views, the reference characters 1 and 2 respectively designate an automobile door and the portion of the vehicle body forming the casing of said door. 3 and 4 are the hinge leaves, respectively mounted upon the door and casing, flush with edge faces thereof and secured by screws 5. The leaf 4:

is formed with a rectangular opening 6, communicating with a recess 7 formed in the casing at the back of said leaf. Flush with the lower edge of said opening, a lug 8 is eX- tended integrally from the leaf into the bottom portion of the recess 7 and is provided with a socket 9. The other leaf 3 of the hinge is integrally formed with a curved arm 10 terminally carrying a depending pintle 11 to be engaged in the socket 9. The end port-ion 12 of the arm 10 is of a height sufficiently reduced to pass through the opening 6 of the leaf 4: without being obstructed by the depending pintle 11. The height of the base portion of the arm 10 is only sufiiciently less than that of the opening 6 to allow said arm to swing freely when the pintle is in its socket. This construction is such that when the door has been hung, it may swing freely on its axis but is restrained against any vertical movement by engagement of the base portion of the arm 10 in the opening 6, except when the door is swung to its fully opened position. In said' position the relatively high base portion of the arm is entirely withdrawn from the opening 6 and it is possible to raise the door sufliciently to withdraw the pintles 11 from their sockets.

To facilitate mounting the door, the lugs 8 are formed in their top surfaces with channels 13 extending from the lower edges of the openings 6 to the sockets 9, said channels forming guide-ways along which the pintles 11 may pass into registration with their respective sockets. In mounting the door, the workman first adjusts the same at a right angle to the vehicle body (as shown in Fig. 1) and after engaging the pintles 11 with the channels 13 shifts the door parallel to the vehicle casing until the pintles, guided by said channels, register with the sockets 9 and drop into the same.

WVhile the invention is primarily designed with the view of facilitating the mounting of automobile doors, it is also applicable to any other construction involving the establishment of a hinged connection between two members, such as to allow a quick detachment thereof.

:What I claim is:,, V V

1. A hinge construction comprising two members, one having an opening therein and a lug projecting ad acent said opening and formed with a socket, and the other having an arm insertible through said opening and carrying a pintle engageable. with said socket, and means carried by said lug for guiding the pintle from said opening into registration with the socket.

2. A hinge construction comprising two members, one having an opening therein and lower edge of said opening, and the other having an arm insertible through said opening and carrying a pintle, for which said ohannel forms a guide-way to register the pintle with the socket;

3. A hinge construction comprising two members respectively carrying a pintle and a socket to receive the pintle, the socket carrying member having an opening through which the pintle is insertible to engage the socket and. a guide channel being extended from said opening to the socket to facilitate establishing a blind engagement between the pintle and socket.

In testimony whereof I sign this specification.

FREDERICK A. LEDWARD.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. G. 

